adminEXAMINATION candidates are you ready? Most students would respond positively to this question as they have been preparing for the examinations in the past two years. However, there are students who believe in last minute preparations and it is disturbing to hear students asking questions like; how do you start writing such an essay, be it an ordinary English Language composition question or Literature question at the eleventh hour? Points presented here today cover both English Language and Literature essay writing.
For example, never start without planning your writing. The issues are, do not rush into your writing as you are much more likely to get confused and make mistakes. Take time to plan your writing, whether you are doing an examination or a piece of coursework. Even if the question looks easy, it is still important to make a plan. Obviously you do not want to miss a key point out of your answer especially if it is an easy question where you could pick up high marks. Do not worry about what other people do, particularly in examinations. Just concentrate on making your writing clear by planning it first.
Always make your ideas clear to the examiners. Tell the examiners what you are doing. It does not matter that this might sound weird. The big reason for planning is so that you know what you are going to write and you make it clear. The only way to do that is to tell the examiner exactly what you are going to do. Pretend that examiners are slow in understanding issues so you have to be really clear or they (examiners) would not understand your writing. Once examiners do not understand you, you are doomed.
I want to emphasise that students need to plan before they write. I know students generally are not keen on planning. Some even boast of doing well in their writing. This is dangerous in the same way as lazy students who do not read fully the prescribed Literature texts but rely on getting information from class discussions from those who would have sweated it out reading the whole texts. Such students might have passed but that does not mean they are fully knowledgeable on the subject.
Followers of such advice risk failing.
When students sit for examinations they should be totally ready. Questions about how to write different reports or certain essays should all have been covered. The following are reminders on composition writing. Students need to understand what a story is before tackling topics on story writing. A story can fit in any of these descriptions: something that always entertains.
A story is always fiction, a story can be gossip, a story can be told in a newspaper report. A story is something that we learn from and is always told in words.
Students need to know the different types of stories so that when they write they can place their stories in proper categories therefore produce sound answers. They can write on science fiction. This is a story about life in the future and it may involve outer space. They could write detective stories — stories in which mysteries about crimes are usually solved. They could write on romance, that is a story about love usually between two main characters which has a happy ending.
They could write tragical stories whereby the outcome is sad. They could write comedy — a story in which the characters and events make the reader laugh. They might as well write fantasy — a story that includes magic and the supernatural. Such stories are often set in an unknown past. They can also write historical stories — a story about characters set in the past. All this depends on the topics provided on the examination paper. Thorough preparations on all these types come in handy at examination time.
Remember we said your story structure should have the beginning (introduction), problem (complication), high point (climax) and ending (resolution). If you follow this story structure you are bound to produce excellent compositions which will impress the examiners. Starting essays is not an easy task and students will testify to that. But writers of repute state that you should get to the point right away. You are advised to do three things in your opening line:
You must get to the point straightaway. Make sure your answer fits the question and you must grab the attention of anyone reading it. Never start an essay with a long introduction. On Literature essay questions use the exact question words in the first paragraph as these show that you are answering the question. The style of an article should fit the situation. You could start articles with a headline. On descriptions the trick is to grab the examiners’ attention and show that you know what you are doing.
More could be said about writing essays but let us leave it here for today. Examination students need to read more before getting into the examinations room. For views link up with [email protected] or sms only to 0772113207.
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